Charmaine White Face, Oglala Lakota, protests the SD National Guard’s use of Buffalo Gap Grasslands area for camp use during the upcoming Golden Coyote Training.
Dangers to National Guard debated
By Karin Eagle
Native Sun News Staff Writer RED SHIRT TABLE — Uranium mining is not the only avenue of concern for introducing dangerous levels of radiation into the air and water supplies. Mere disturbances in the land where naturally occurring uranium can lead to the “activation” of this radiation, according to Charmaine White Face with the Defenders of the Black Hills. In the first of two meetings held within the Red Shirt Community, the South Dakota National Guard appeared with information about their upcoming Golden Coyote exercises. This is a training session for guard units from around the country and abroad that happen every year in and around the Black Hills. This will be their 30th year. Created in the mid 1980’s with the cooperation of the National Forest Service and Custer State Park, the exercise provides relevant training opportunities in support of overseas contingency operations and homeland defense. Golden Coyote has developed into one of the nation’s top training opportunities for National Guard, reserve and active-duty forces, as well as military personnel from foreign countries. “This exercise is a great opportunity for units to tailor their training to their needs,” said Brig. Gen. Jeff Marlette, commander of forces for Golden Coyote. “Nationwide there are very few exercises that are designed for National Guard, U.S. reserve and international forces to come together and train. It helps to prepare units to be able to go abroad and support operations overseas, as well as train on homeland security mission’s right here in the United States.” The Defenders of The Black Hills approached the SD National Guard last year with concerns over the establishment of a camp site that would include communications, sleeping tents, food trucks and showers for the soldiers as they needed between training sessions. The proposed area was above and beyond the bluffs over the Red Shirt community located along the Cheyenne River valley. The camp was proposed to be established on Buffalo Gap Grasslands. At that time, in 2013, the concerns were heard and addressed by forfeiting the camp site for another location. A scientific study was proposed to address the concerns about the naturally occurring uranium located on exactly the location of the proposed camp site. In early May 2014, Charmaine White Face issued the following statement: “The concerns are that the SD soldiers will be exposed to nuclear radioactivity from the naturally occurring Uranium. Also, when the Uranium is disturbed in any way, the 13 decay products, which are 85 percent more radioactive than the naturally occurring Uranium, will be emitting more radioactivity which will impact the soldiers as they sleep.” This statement was in part a response to the scientific study and results given to White Face by the National Guard, which she blasts as “not even a science report”. At the meeting on May 13, White Face addressed the SD National Guard and their contingency of public relations people from Camp Rapid by stating that her concern was for the soldiers first, as they might not all know the true facts about how naturally occurring Uranium affects not only the air and water, but the vegetation and wild life as well. White Face was assured that contrary to an ordinance of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (Ordinance 07-40) titled The Natural Resources Protection Act of 2007, the only way the National Guard would change their proposed camp location would be on word from the OST President, Bryan Brewer. The SD National Guard assured the handful of attendees at the meeting that the camp was being established only with the consent of Brewer. The purpose of the OST’s Natural Resources Protection Act is to ensure that no damage will come to the people, the culture, and the environment, including the air and water, and economy of the OST because of uranium mining or processing in the region of the Upper Midwestern States. The act also affirms that the tribe has a duty and responsibility to protect and preserve the natural world in its “purest form for the life of future generations.” Another public meeting is scheduled for May 22 at the Red Shirt Community Building at 5:00 p.m. According to Dr. Gordon Edwards at the World Uranium Hearings held in Salzburg, Austria in 1992, Uranium is the heaviest naturally occurring element on earth. “It is a metal, like all other metals, except that it had no commercial value before the mid-twentieth century. Until the last fifty years it was produced only as a byproduct. Radioactive substances have unstable atoms which can and will explode microscopically, and when they do, they give off a burst of energy. This process is called "radioactive disintegration" or "radioactive decay". “When radioactive atoms explode, they give off highly energetic charged particles of two types: alpha and beta. These are particles, they're not invisible rays. They are like pieces of shrapnel from an explosion. And this microscopic shrapnel does great damage because of the high energy of the particles which are given off.” “To be more precise,” explains Dr. Edwards, “when uranium disintegrates it turns into a substance called protactinium, which is also radioactive. And when that disintegrates it turns into a substance named thorium, which is likewise radioactive.” “When thorium disintegrates it turns into radium; when radium disintegrates it turns into radon gas. And when radon gas atoms disintegrate, they turn into what are called the "radon daughters", or "radon progeny", of which there are about half a dozen radioactive materials, including polonium.” Finally, in this progression, what is left is a stable substance, which in itself is highly toxic: lead. But because the radioactivity of the other materials is so much more dangerous than this toxic heavy metal, people don't even talk about the lead at the end of the chain. The belief is that once the entire radioactivity is gone, what's left is perfectly safe. However, the lead that remains is just a whole lot less dangerous than the radioactive materials that produced it. All the radioactive decay products of uranium remain in the crushed rock when uranium is separated from the ore. One of the hidden dangers uranium is extracted from the ground is what is left behind; a finely pulverized material called uranium tailings. The effective half-life of this radioactivity is 80,000 years. That means in 80,000 years there will be half as much radioactivity in these tailings as exists today. And as these tailings are left on the surface of the earth, they are blown by the wind, they are washed by the rain into the water systems, and they inevitably spread. In addition, as the tailings are sitting there on the surface, they are continually generating radon gas. Radon is about eight times heavier than air, so it stays close to the ground. It'll travel 1,000 miles in just a few days in a light breeze. As it drifts along, it deposits on the vegetation below the radon daughters, which are the radioactive byproducts including polonium. You can get radon daughters in animals, fish and plants thousands of miles away from where the uranium disturbances occur. The Defenders of The Black Hills will once again be in attendance at the May 22 meeting in Red Shirt Table. (Contact Karin Eagle at staffwriter@nsweekly.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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